Auditing Employee Benefit Plans and ERISA Reporting

This chapter focuses on employee benefit plan audits, a specialized area with its own regulatory and reporting implications. The key is to understand the plan environment well enough to identify the procedures, compliance concerns, and disclosures that make these audits different.

In This Chapter

• Understanding Defined Contribution and Defined Benefit Plan Types introduces the plan structures under audit.
• Applying DOL and ERISA Requirements in Plan Audits covers the governing regulatory environment.
• Performing Employee Benefit Plan Audit Procedures explains how procedures change in this engagement setting.
• Reporting and Disclosure Issues in EBP Audits addresses the reporting consequences of plan-specific issues.

How to Use This Chapter

• Read this chapter after the specialized governmental and attestation material if EBP audits are unfamiliar.
• Focus on what makes plan audits procedurally and regulatorily distinct.
• Revisit it whenever an AUD miss involves ERISA, plan classification, or EBP reporting.

In this section

• Understanding Defined Contribution and Defined Benefit Plan Types
  How defined contribution and defined benefit plan structures affect the audit focus.
• Applying DOL and ERISA Requirements in Plan Audits
  How DOL and ERISA requirements shape employee benefit plan audit obligations.
• Performing Employee Benefit Plan Audit Procedures
  How audit procedures change in employee benefit plan engagements.
• Reporting and Disclosure Issues in EBP Audits
  How reporting and disclosure issues are handled in employee benefit plan audits.